About this title: This epic work tells the story of the Hemings family, whose close blood ties to the third president of America had been systematically expunged from history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemingses from their origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Thomas Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings' siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. "The Hemingses of Monticello" sets the family's compelling saga against the ...
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Description: Fine. 0393337766 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black ink mark on outside edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780393064773ISBN:0393064778
Description: Very Good. This book is in very good condition. No highlighted portions or handwritten notes. This item was a donation to Goodwill of Greater Washington. Thank you for your purchase. Your order will be processed within 2 business days of receipt. read more
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Norton & Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780393064773ISBN:0393064778
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. The Book is tight and square but has an old owners name in the endpapers. The Dj has little more corner wear that an very good copy should have. read more
Description: Very Good. 0393064778 Ships next business day. Very Good Condition and Unread! Text is clean and unmarked! No dust jacket. --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2008-09-17
ISBN-13:9780393064773ISBN:0393064778
Description: Good. EX-LIBRARY copy with usual markings. Dust jacket in protective mylar. Text unmarked, pages clean, some pages corner creased. Good solid copy. *Ships Next Business day* read more
Description: Very Good. 0393064778 Gently Used Hardcover ~ minor shelf-wear, otherwise Neat & Tight Binding ~ all books carefully examined & well packaged. read more
Description: Fine. 0393064778 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black ink mark on outside edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780393337761ISBN:0393337766
Description: New. Historian and legal scholar Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson. read more
"The overly detailed book regarding the Hemings family, of which Sally Hemings was a member, is neverthless highly interesting in parts. I am skimming until I find something I really wish to read. I find, for example, a photo of the remains of a Hemings hearth, a tedious and totally unintersting inclusion. Much of the book is speculation. The relationships between the Hemingses and Jefferson and his wife (Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson's wife, and, after his wife's death he lived in a monogamous relationship with Sally Hemings and had several children with her, some of whom left Monticello to "pass" as whites) are fascinating. I find the law in slave-holding Virginia compelling as well: at one time a person who was one-eighth white was a freeman; later the "one drop" rule was adopted."
"Currently reading. Hmmmm. I'm torn about this book. I think it exceptionally well written, but the author makes enormous leaps and bounds regarding the players. I understand that sources are thin on the ground, but you can't say, "Well, it seems logical that slaves would feel this way if they'd spent four years in France." Well, no, you can't go there as much as you would like to. She is on much firmer ground when discussing Jefferson's motivations, but then again, he was a compulsive writer and list maker. I'm halfway through. I'm not questioning the scholarship, it seems well researched but I am questioning the author's tendency to make history's silk purse out of the sources sow's ear."
"I didn't get to finish the book, but I want to rate it anyway. It is a library book, and the rest of the books from this batch need to go back soon, and this one, being new, can't be renewed.
For the second time I've picked this book up and I've been caught by the author's very good writing style. In addition, right now the part of the book that I'm reading is more about what it was like to be a member of the Hemings family or any family black or white that was living around Thomas Jefferson, than it is about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.
One of the things the author speaks about is that we don't know how the women who were living in slavery felt about the men who fathered their children. In many cases the relationships with those men, black or white, lasted a very long time. The term "concubine" was used for more than one of the Hemings women. And some of the children of those relationships took their father's last names, and some of them kept their mother's last name. It must have meant something depending on which they did, but we don't always know what it meant.
Some of the relationships were built on rape, but some were not. And it was an era when white women were also being forced into unwanted marriages. So it wasn't just black women who felt they could not control their own bodies.
The author also discussed that Elizabeth Hemings had a father who wanted to buy her out of slavery but her mother's owner would not sell the child. One of the reasons that Elizabeth Hemings, Sally's mother, had a last name of her own was that she had been acknowledged by her father as his child. Having a name and knowing what it was was important.
A lot of the reviewers here and at Amazon mention that the book was repetitive, and I agree. I think the author thought that what she had to say about slavery was so different from what other have said that she needed to make her point over and over again. Perhaps a single chapter with all of her arguments in one place early in the book would have worked better."
"lynda was right.. this one was pretty dry. i sat down with it the first night and opened the book expecting to settle in to a juicy novel that was based on historical fact. that's almost what i got... almost. it wasn't juicy at all, and while it was definitely factual, there was absolutely NO juice. it read like a history book.. an interesting part of history, but a text book just wasn't what i was hoping for. i learned a lot about thomas jefferson and his family, the slaves he owned, and the one he took as a concubine. i was enlightened but not enthralled enough to finish the giant book. i got about 300 pages into it before it was due back at the library and i wasn't attached enough to it to re-check. maybe someday when i feel like learning more about mr. jefferson i'll give it another go."
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